I'm writing a book. I'm posting parts of it here as a "dry run". (Got that idea from Donald Miller-- his site is fancier than mine.) Imput would be awesome!!!

Monday, September 3, 2012

Paul Simon and John the Baptist

I discovered a
book I plan to read. And in reading its The New York Times review, I
came across an interesting passage:

“When you are
motivated by fear, you are not able to see the best path—whether in death or in
life.” – Gene O’Kelly Chasing Daylight

Matthew thirteen
is an interesting story of what Presbyterian Minister Matthew Henry calls “the
terror and reproach of conscience”. King Herod deserted his wife for another
woman. John the Baptist told him this was not appropriate, or, more
specifically, not “lawful”. Consequently, John the Baptist was jailed.

Here’s what I find
interesting: Herod was concerned with John the Baptist’s thoughts on his behavior.

If he perceived
John the Baptist as some whackjob who lived in the wilderness, eating locust
and honey, preaching about repentance and end of days, while randomly dunking
people, he wouldn’t care whether the guy approved of his relationship with
Herodias, who happened to be the wife of his brother. The prophet could very
easily be dismissed because he wasn’t exactly assimilated into common society.

But Herod didn’t
dismiss him. Instead, Herod was haunted by the statement.

Why else would a
great ruler have this man from the outskirts of the desert jailed? Herod knew he was dealing with a prophet. And Herod was aware of his own mortality,
something he thought was not apparent
to anyone but himself.

I’m not a big
believer in 21st century judgments on first century events. And I
don’t like arguing about the existence of God. In the words of Donald Miller, “Sooner
or later you just figure out there are some guys who don’t believe in God and
they can prove He doesn’t exist, and there are some other guys who do believe
in God and they can prove He does exist, and the argument stopped being about
God a long time ago and now it’s about who is smarter, and honestly I don’t
care.”

That basically sums
up my feelings regarding conversations on intellectual apologetics. However, my
point is this: the mere fact Herod was spooked by a prophet so far from the
archetype speaks volumes to the underlying feeling of the time. This was real.
And many people in the establishment knew, even if they refused to acknowledge it.
From what I’ve read in scholarship, I am convinced the reason why John the
Baptist was merely jailed as opposed to killed initially was Herod’s fear of
both the community who knew he was a
prophet, and his own conviction he would be responsible
for killing the prophet.

There is this line in the song Sounds of Silence:

"The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls and in tenement halls."

Every time I hear it, I think of John the Baptist.

Anyway

John the Baptist
was eventually beheaded, in this bizarre arrangement regarding his girlfriend’s
daughter, a dance, and a promise. His head was served up in this macabre arrangement
and delivered to the young lady, who requested it under the encouragement of
her mother. (This wasn’t an unheard of event, by the way. Nero would later deliver
his wife’s head to a girlfriend, after falsely accusing the wife of adultery so
he could get out of the marriage.)

Again, I have to
ask why. Granted, these were violent times and human life wasn’t quite as
sacred as it is today, but if Herod did not find John the Baptist credible, he
would either kill him or disregard him immediately.

The delay means he
had to know.

Christianity turns
the Roman establishment on its ear. The Julio-Claudian emperors thought of
themselves as gods, which meant blasphemy and treason were exclusive of one
another.

The emperor would
have no clothes. And everyone could finally say it.

So of course Herod
wanted John the Baptist dead. The prophet was a threat to the comfort of the
establishment.

To really have
faith means facing these moments of crisis and acting in obedience, as opposed
to pride or in a reaction to fear. What if Herod had instead repented? How fast
would civilization emerge into something else just by one conversion?

Instead he is just
Herod, the man who had John the Baptist executed, under really strange
circumstances.